What are the customs of Mid-Autumn Festival?

The main customs of Mid-Autumn Festival vary from place to place, but there are mainly the following:

1, ancestor worship

People believe that ancestors will go home to visit their descendants at this time, so they need to worship their ancestors. Through a certain ceremony, the people take the ghost of their ancestors home at night, and provide tea and rice three times a day until their return. Burn the paper bag when you send it back.

2. River lamp

Generally, a river lantern is a lamp or candle placed on a base. It is placed in rivers, lakes and seas during the Mid-Autumn Festival to let it float, in order to cross the drowning ghosts and other ghosts in the water.

3. City God Patrol

Master Huang Cheng's ritual journey was spectacular, from an emperor dressed as a living person to a ghost, as well as flags and gongs, lanterns, stilts and floats. It seems to be a huge drama in which the dead and the dead travel through time and space.

Customs inventory before and after Mid-Autumn Festival

Hebei Province: Recommend new products

Nanpi County took fruit, bacon, wine and money to the ancestral grave on July 15. It is called "recommending new things" to hold a hemp valley to a field stalk. The Mid-Autumn Festival in Guangping County offers fresh food to worship ancestors, and prepares fruits and vegetables and steamed sheep for grandchildren, which is called "sending sheep". On July 15, Qinghe County went to the grave to pay a sacrifice and offer steamed sheep to her daughter.

Ghosts'Festival

Shanxi Province: Mianren

On this day, scholars in Yonghe County offered sacrifices to Kuixing. The shepherd family in Zhangzi County slaughtered sheep in the Mid-Autumn Festival, competing with the gods. It is said that this can increase the output of sheep. Meat is also given to relatives, while those who are poor and have no sheep use steamed noodles in the shape of sheep instead. Farmers in Yangcheng county make cats, tigers and grains from wheat crumbs and sacrifice them in the fields, which is called "going to the fields". People in Mayi County take wheat flour as the shape of children in the Mid-Autumn Festival, named "Mianren", and give each other children from relatives. Farmers in Xinxian County hang colored paper on the stalks of fields on the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Guangxi province: kill more ducks

Yangshan people regard July 14 as the festival of Mulian, killing ducks to worship their ancestors. There were no pedestrians on the road that day, so it was called "hiding ghosts".

Henan province: hanging paper flags at the door

When the Central Plains paid homage to the local officials in Shangqiu County, a paper flag was hung at the door, which is said to be insect-proof. Flying kites during Mid-Autumn Festival in Mengjin County. On July 15, the magistrate of a county drew a gray circle in front of the door and burned paper gongs in the circle to worship the ancestors.

Shandong Province: Shipbuilding

Fishermen in Long Island make boats out of wooden boards, stick "for ××" notes on them, or the memorial tablets of drowning people, put food, clothes, shoes and socks on them, and then light candles. The married man put the boat into the sea. Families in Zhanhua County set up sheds with fresh grass leaves, picked Kyle, called it "Ma Wu", and asked their ancestors to put them in it for sacrifice. Ling Du County calls the Mid-Autumn Festival "pinch festival", and every family eats humble meals.

Shaanxi province: burning paper to sacrifice "hanging hoes" in Magu

Lintong county burned paper to worship Magu on July 15. In Chenggu County, farmers will drink alcohol on the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is called "hanging hoes". Yannong went to the field in the morning of Mid-Autumn Festival, chose the highest and densest ear of rice, hung a five-color paper flag and named it "Tian Zan".

July and a half

Jiangsu province: tin foil folding ingot

Residents of Wuxian County fold gold ingots with tin foil during the Mid-Autumn Festival and burn them along the road, which is called "ghost fate". There is still a kind of paper ghost circulating in Yizheng county, which contains bowl lamps, gamblers, drunkards and senior officials. There are four boats in the Zhongyuan Festival River in Yixing County, one is the flame mouth, the other is the Buddha chanting, the other is the tin foil ingot burning, and the other is the river lantern. On this day, villagers in Dong Xian eat flat food, which is a dustpan-shaped food made of flour and sugar. When releasing river lanterns in Shanghai, the stern is decorated with red and green paper lanterns, which are called "degrees".

Sichuan province: burning paper

In Sichuan province, there is a custom of burning paper to worship ancestors in the Central Plains. That is, a stack of paper money is sealed in a small envelope, and the name and title of the recipient, the number of envelopes received, and the name and time of the silk changer are written on the envelope. It is said that the Gate of Ghost was closed on July 15, and all families had to "send their children to Shigu". Chengdu people tied a "flower tray" with paper, put paper money and fruit offerings on it, and walked around the room, saying, "Dear friends, neighbors, former residents, ghosts who can't bear to go back, please put on the flower tray and send you back!" After that, the back end is incinerated outside the house.

Zhejiang Province: Shishi

Jiashan county regards the rain of Mid-Autumn Festival as a sign of rice harvest. In Tonglu County, people sing gongs and scatter rice in the wild on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, which is called "giving food". The Lanshe Society in eastern Zhejiang invited 24 old ladies to recite the scriptures and "walk eight knots". Eating "jiaozi Cake" on the rooftop during Mid-Autumn Festival is similar to spring rolls. There is also the custom of setting up street lamps. There are six able-bodied men as a group: one who knocks gongs, one who plays bangzi, one who carries lanterns, one who sprinkles salty rice along the way, one who makes incense along the way (inserted on a sweet potato or taro), and one who makes tofu and rice balls along the way (placed on a big leaf), with a sacrifice every hundred steps or so.

Jiangxi province: burning paper

People in Ji 'an burn paper for the New Year, and pregnant women are forbidden to fold paper ingots. It is said that the paper ingots folded by pregnant women cannot be carried by ghosts after being burned, and it is also impossible to send them to the underworld. When releasing the flame, the mage threw buns and fruits at the audience. Legend has it that a woman grabbed a steamed stuffed bun and had a child the next year. A child who robs steamed stuffed buns will never be afraid in his life. Ancestor worship in Anyuan County began on July 12, and incense and tea were burned in the morning and evening. On the fifteenth night, burn clothes and give paper money.

Ghosts'Festival

Fujian: Paper Burning and Clothing Festival

On the Mid-Autumn Festival in Yongfu County, married women must go home to worship their ancestors. Fuzhou dialect calls the Central Plains "Paper Burning Festival". The married daughter prepares her parents' clothes and robes, puts them in a box called a "gauze box" and sends them to her parents' home. There was a custom of Pudu in the middle of Yuan Dynasty in central Fujian, which was held in both urban and rural areas, and its funds were raised by people along the gate. Even the poorest families will try their best to raise money to cope. There is a proverb: "Pudu does not pay, and the plague is in front of us." Purdue does not contribute, and the dwarf comes to pick it up. " There are also children's bands performing in Purdue.

Guangdong Province: Sacrifice to the King of Dog Head

On July 15, people surnamed Lin in Qujiang County offered sacrifices to their ancestors and the king of the head of a dog, and gave them to the little boys and girls who sang and danced in colorful clothes. People in Guishan County regard July 14 as the Mid-Autumn Festival. It is said that because Yuan soldiers went south in those days, in order to avoid chaos, the festival was celebrated one day in advance. In Chenghai county, ancestor worship and kitchen god are held on the Mid-Yuan Festival. In the central plains of Deqing, winter leaves were wrapped in flour to make cakes, which were called "bridges" to worship ancestors. In ancient Shigu, Chaoyang County, wealthy families would buy plows, waterwheels and even girls from poor families, write them on paper and scatter them when giving food. If you can't afford farm tools or a wife, you can get a voucher.

Yunnan province: cucumber boat

Tengyue people burned buns after offering sacrifices to their ancestors, carved a cucumber into a boat shape, called a "cucumber boat", and incinerated it with the bag.

Purdue: hanging paper lanterns under the eaves

During Purdue, sacrifices will be placed on the altar in front of every house, and paper lanterns will be hung under the eaves to illuminate the road, so that ghosts can find a place to support. Purdue usually centers on temples, and nearby residents go to the temples to worship with sacrifices.

Customs of Central Plains

Port: water discharge lamp

This is a special activity near the harbor to purify the ghosts in the water. Because people often drown or crew get off the boat near the sea, we should take care of the ghosts in the water besides the ghosts on land. The most famous Lantern Festival in Taiwan Province Province is Keelung, which attracts a large number of tourists every year.

Taiwan Province province: catching orphans.

In some places in Taiwan Province Province, the activity of "robbing orphans" was popular in the mid-Yuan Dynasty. The lonely shed consists of four pillars coated with butter. The contestants were divided into four teams and climbed up the solitary shed from four directions. On the top of the lonely shed, there are sacrifices on all sides, and the team that grabs it first wins. This activity has become the most important activity in Shantou, attracting many tourists.